On a cold Canadian night in 1845, James "Jimmy" Howlett sprouts claws made of bone and kills a man; he and his half-brother, Victor Creed, escape into the night together. Over the next century, Jimmy and Victor tear a bloody swathe through the American Civil War, both World Wars, and Vietnam—and during Vietnam, the Army has them both executed (Victor for killing a superior officer, Jimmy for defending Victor).

Several years later, Jimmy—now calling himself Logan—is forced to deal with his past when Stryker tries to recruit him back into the team... and an enraged Victor later kills Logan's lover. Stryker reapproaches Logan and offers a deal: if he undergoes an operation to reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, he'll have a chance for his revenge against Victor. Logan survives the operation due to his healing factor, then escapes from Stryker's clutches before a planned memory wipe—and vows to kill both Stryker and Victor.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine contains the following tropes:

Aborted Arc: The film ended with the reveal that Deadpool had survived being decapitated, setting the character up for future appearances. The Internet Backdraft, coupled with the movie's mediocre earnings, led to the studio abandoning any plans for a sequel for several years, and releasing the unrelated The Wolverine instead. A solo Deadpool movie was released in 2016, but it's completely unconnected to the previous films and treats Wolverine as Canon Discontinuity. Or, more accurately, is set in the alternate timeline after X-Men: Days of Future Past erased this film from the timeline.

Absurdly Sharp Blade: Shortly after Logan receives his adamantium infusion, he slices up several items in a farmhouse bathroom (including a porcelain sink) with his now impossibly sharp claws, despite applying what appears to be no more than the force required to move an unrestrained arm.

Action Insurance Gag: When Victor hears Logan coming after him for killing Kayla, he asks the bartender if he has insurance. When the bartender says he doesn't, Victor says, "Too bad."

Action Prologue: The pre-credits prologue is a flashback of the main character's childhood, while the credits sequence is a montage of Wolverine and Sabretooth taking part in battles through the ages.

Wolverine: Origin by Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada and Paul Jenkins, is loosely adapted into the introduction showing Wolverine's childhood. The story reveals Logan's name is James Howlett, and so does the movie.

In Wolverine: Origin, James shares a childhood with his brother Dog Logan, rumored to be Sabretooth. Wolverine's brother being Sabretooth, and the two sharing a childhood together, used to be a persistent rumor in the comics. The film keeps the interpretation that James' brother is Sabretooth, and that they grew up together, while in the comics, Dog Logan is still James' brother, and they did share a childhood together, but Dog Logan is revealed to be a completely different character than Sabretooth.

Barry Windsor-Smith's run on Marvel Comics Presents #72–84, "Weapon X", is loosely adapted into the Weapon X scene, as far as Wolverine receiving adamantium from an organization, Wolverine being known as Weapon X during the procedure, and Wolverine escaping from the facility.

Wolverine vol. 2 #1-65 introduces pivotal aspects of Wolverine's past including Silverfox, Team X, and Sabretooth's recurring rivalry and torment of Wolverine. This was also where Sabretooth's familial connection to Wolverine was hinted at before the publication of Wolverine: Origin.

Agent Zero's history with Weapon X and Team X is scattered throughout X-Men #5-7, #10-11, Maverick #1-12, Wolverine #60-64, and Wolverine Annual September 1995. He is not known as Agent Zero until the revived Weapon X program under Malcolm Colcord, from Wolverine #166 onward.

Mastadon appears as a member of Team X in Wolverine #48, and #61-62. In the film, his role is replaced by The Blob, who was not part of Team X in the comic.

In early appearances of Deadpool in New Mutants and X-Force, Deadpool mentions having been part of the Weapon X program. The film plays with this by turning Deadpool into a member of Team X, and later, Weapon XI.

The story arc in Wolverine, where Wolverine gets a new adamantium skeleton from Genesis in Wolverine #100, but rejects it and becomes "bone claw" Wolverine for some time, establishes that Wolverine's mutation originally included bone claws. This is confirmed when Rogue uses Wolverine's powers, and she grows bone claws of her own. Wolverine: Origin would make the bone claw mutation explicit.

New X-Men is the initial appearance of Emma Frost's diamond form, but this has nothing to do with Wolverine's origin. What is relevant is the series introducing the concept of Weapon X being the tenth Weapon project, one project of a larger program, with other weapon numbers being assigned to other Weapon projects. The film takes this as far as introducing Weapon XI, but doesn't go into more detail on the other projects.

Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, pre-X-Men Logan was a legitimate asshole who would have been very much ideologically aligned with the films' version of Stryker (something Stryker alludes to in X2: X-Men United). In this film he's shown to be generally decent and a reluctant participant in the X Team's more morally dubious actions.

Adaptational Villainy: Agent Zero was a lot closer to being an Anti-Hero in the comics. He's a straight-up villain here and completely loyal to Colonel Stryker.

Adapted Out: Logan's childhood friend Rose and half-brother Dog were omitted from his backstory, and much of their roles in the plot was given to Sabretooth.

Advertised Extra: Gambit qualifies. He has limited screentime, but manages to do a few things (sets up and then stops a fight between Logan and Sabretooth, takes Logan to the enemy base, saves Logan in a Big Damn Heroes moment).

All Your Powers Combined: The film turns Weapon XI, aka Deadpool, so named because he's a "pool" of mutants' powers created to kill other mutants, into one of these, combining mutant abilities from Logan, Wraith, and Cyclops, among others.

Artistic License – History: The movie claims to start in the Northwest Territories, Canada, in 1845—except that the Northwest Territories would not become a part of Canada until 1870 (and the borders of the vast area were gradually changed until 1905, which resulted in the creation of 4 provinces and 2 territories). Canada itself did not gain dominion status until 1867. It would have been more accurate to caption the scene as "North-Western Territory, British North America".

Aside Glance: Wade Wilson is constantly sneaking in looks to the camera.

Attempted Rape: In the Vietnam War sequence, Victor drags a young Vietnamese woman into a hut and throws her onto a bed. He starts killing his fellow soldiers when they try to stop him.

Awesomeness by Analysis: Victor Creed, a clawed and beastlike creature with abilities similar to Wolverine, faces John Wraith, a man who can instantly teleport. Creed uses his brain, not his mutant power, to predict the exact location of John Wraith's next teleport destination. Creed catches Wraith's spine mid-teleport, and comments on how Wraith's weakness was his predictability.

Ax-Crazy: Victor Creed has a bloodlust that only mindless battle seems to satisfy.

For all his (many) flaws, Victor Creed really loves his little brother Jimmy. It's best illustrated in the Civil War part of the opening montage, when Logan is shot and they are (at the time) unaware of their healing factors. Victor's expression says it all.

Kayla appears to be willing to do anything to keep her sister safe.

Big Damn Heroes: Gambit and Sabretooth both save Wolverine at different points in the movie.

The Big Easy: Largely averted when Wolverine heads to New Orleans to find Gambit, who, surprisingly, is toned down a lot from his comic persona.

The Big Guy: Fred Dukes, even before his weight gain, is the largest member of Team X, and can blow up a tank by sticking his fist in the barrel.

Big "NO!": Used along with Skyward Scream twice, both times by Logan; the first time after he kills his father and the second time when he finds the dead body of his girlfriend.

Blade Below the Shoulder: Weapon XI has full-length retractable katana blades in each arm. At least Wolverine's claws might slide into his forearm, allowing him to bend his wrist. This guy has no excuse. The blades are in fact so long that he shouldn't even be able to bend his elbow.

Blade Brake: Logan sticks his claws into a gravel road to make a hard turn on a motorcycle. Interestingly, it's one of the rare times his claws don't just slice clean through whatever they hit.

Blood Knight: Victor joins many wars for over a century only to keep his killer instincts satisfied. He enjoys being a warrior far too much to start a life of peace with James.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of the film, Deadpool fishes his severed head out of the rubble, looks straight at the audience, and says "Shhh".

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Less than a minute into his first appearance, Wade Wilson clearly establishes himself as obnoxious and immature, and almost incapable of ever shutting up, no matter how much he annoys everyone around him (a lot, all the time). He's an excellent soldier/assassin, however, and this, more than anything, is probably the main reason anyone puts up with him.

Cain and Abel: Victor is significantly more unhinged and murderous than his brother Logan.

Call Back: Col. Stryker says that Wade Wilson would be the perfect mercenary if it weren't for his mouth; towards the end of the movie, Wade has his Mouth Stitched Shut. Lampshaded by Wolverine (especially relevant since Logan, in the beginning of the film, was the first one to speak up about how Wade never stops talking):

Several characters from the comic book can also be seen in the Weapon X scenes: Quicksilver, Banshee, and Toad, specifically. Others are harder to distinguish on sight.

When Stryker and General Munsen are discussing Stryker's preparations for the upcoming human/mutant war, a young Jason Stryker can be seen frozen in one of the People Jarsnote the one Stryker brushes off with his hand before General Munsen asks him if he hates mutants.

Canon Discontinuity: A very well known example of this trope. After the film came out, no one was really happy with the result (from the fans to the production team—even Hugh Jackman has stated it didn't feel like a Wolverine movie), and the various contradictions it has with the original trilogy. The prequel franchise was then rejiggered with X-Men: First Class (containing a completely different Emma Frost) and this film is ignored almost entirely in Days of Future Past, where even The Last Stand is taken into account. Minor references to Origins in other films include an audio clip of Wolverine yelling, "Kayla!" that plays when Wolverine is unconscious during The Wolverine, and footage of Sabertooth stepping on his bone claws appearing when Xavier looks into his mind in Days of Future Past.

The name "Blob" is only mentioned once, as an insulting nickname that Fred Dukes hates. Even then, it only comes up when Freddie mishears Logan calling him "Bub."

"Gambit" is only briefly mentioned as Remy LeBeau's nickname that the prison guards gave him because he always beat them at poker.

"Deadpool" isn't spoken until the end of the movie, when it's used as a callsign for Weapon XI. Other than that, he's either "Wade" or "Weapon XI".

Victor's nickname Sabretooth is never mentioned. This is possibly to skirt the fact that he's so radically different from the Sabretooth we met in the first X-Men film in looks and personality that it's almost impossible to believe they're the same character.

Of course, averted by the main character. Although he's more frequently called "James" or "Logan", he fully embraces the codename "Wolverine" by requesting to add it to his military tags, replacing his actual name.

Composite Character: The film went along with the comic book's then (and rather compelling) implication of Dog Logan and Victor Creed/Sabretooth being the same individual; years later, however, the comics show Dog and Sabretooth as not being the same person. Movie Victor also takes on Rose's role from the Origin comic as the person who helped Logan run away.

Continuity Drift: When Sabretooth first meets Wolverine in X-Men, he never gives any indication that he knows who Wolverine is, even though he spends more time with him than with any of the X-Men. This film later reveals that, not only do the two have an extensive history together (going back to the mid-1800's), they're actually half-brothers.

Cyclops is portrayed as a teenager in 1979 during the movie, but is portrayed as a man in his mid- to late twenties in the original X-Men trilogy, which takes place 20 or so years later. James Marsden was 27 when he portrayed Cyclops in X-Men, about ten years too young.

Admittedly, Cyclops was blindfolded whilst being rescued from the Island by Wolverine, but it still seems unlikely that in X-Men, he would have no idea whatsoever that he has met the man who once saved his life.

Cyke's Eye Beams carry heat in this film, when in all of his other appearances, they are purely kinetic.

X2: X-Men United hints that the adamantium was injected and shaped by doctors, and (in a flashback) Logan is seen fighting off several doctors who've been working on him before escaping the Alkali Lake facility covered in blood. In this movie, the adamantium bonding process is hands-free, no doctors ever work on Logan, and the adamantium is grafted to his bone claws, something he wasn't mentioned as having in the earlier films. Additionally, the X-rays don't show the two giant holes he should have in his skull.

Sabretooth never has his memory erased and should know his own brother. In X-Men, which was released first, it seems that Sabretooth does not know Logan, looks completely different, and is near-mute (though none of the Brotherhood is terribly talkative in X1.) That surprised people; Tyler Mane is contracted for two movies, and would not have changed much due to age. You'd have expected Sabretooth to be largely the same but with more lines instead of the totally different character we're given here.

Curb-Stomp Battle: Wolverine and Sabretooth fight three times, with Sabretooth getting the upper hand the first time. The second ends indecisively, while in the third, Wolverine beats ten shades of sunshine out of Sabretooth in around ten seconds.

The film has Love Interest Kayla. Being Logan, a character who in the comics collects dead lovers and was unattached in the first three movies, it seemed she is doomed to die, and the film doesn't disappoint... at first. But when it's revealed he death was faked and their affair false, the trope seems averted. But then it turns out she really loved him... so she's dead as a doornail by the end, and the now amnesiac Wolverine doesn't even know to cry over her corpse. Tragic in all the wrong ways.

Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Stryker manages to bypass both Wolverine's adamantium bones and healing factor by shooting him in the head with adamantium bullets. The bullets pierce his skull, and while Logan's brain can heal, his memories can't.

Doomed by Canon: Wolverine has to lose his memories and rename himself "Logan", Sabretooth has to distance himself from Wolverine to the point of giving him the silent treatment, William Stryker has to survive and so does Cyclops. Silver Fox has to either die or board a bus (since Wolverine doesn't have a girlfriend in the original movie).

Downer Beginning: Jimmy's father dies, leading the boy to kill the assassin, Logan... and discover he is his real father. So Jimmy is forced to run away along with Logan's other son, Victor.

The Dragon: Agent Zero is Stryker's Dragon at first, then Sabretooth and Weapon XI later on.

Drowning My Sorrows: Subverted during one of the post-credits scenes; we see Wolverine in a Japanese bar. The bartendress asks him if he's drinking to forget, to which Wolverine replies he's drinking to remember.

Dumb Muscle: Fred Dukes, who Stryker employs to do the heavy stuff like stopping a tank from firing at them, is not the smartest of Stryker's team, even getting a tattoo of a woman he only met the night before.

Edge Gravity: A weird non-videogame example occurs during the climactic battle on the top of the cooling tower. Punched, kicked, tripped, backdropped and blown up, characters always land on the top of the wall, which is less than a meter wide—though considering that the characters all have Healing Factors and are pretty much immune to falls, it wouldn't really matter.

Empty Elevator: Very much averted—they're in the elevator, right in the firing line of two dozen mooks with automatic weapons. So they send in the Merc with the Mouth to "clean up" first.

The generals allow for Stryker to carry out his Weapon XI project. However, one of them calls Stryker out when telling him that he suspects that Stryker's motivations are basically out of Fantastic Racism. This gets him killed by Stryker.

Dukes clearly is disturbed by what Stryker does on Three Mile Island.

Exposition of Immortality: The film starts with Wolverine and Sabertooth as young children in 1845, then starts a montage of them fighting in every American war from the Civil War to Vietnam.

Expy: In the comics, adamantium is a man-made metal, while the film reveals that adamantium ore is apparently naturally existing and comes from meteorites. A nearly indestructible metal found inside a meteorite somewhere in Africa? Sounds an awful lot like vibranium...

Extranormal Prison: Briefly features a series of holding cells that combine this trope and Tailor-Made Prison. Each cell has been made capable of holding its individual mutant occupant.

False Reassurance: Wolverine nearly throttles Colonel Stryker when he thinks he's lying. Styker swears that he's telling the truth "on the life of my son!" Of course, as we saw in X2, Stryker doesn't value his son's life very highly.

Flipping the Bird: Wolverine does it to Gambit, by retracting his outer two claws and leaving the middle.

Foregone Conclusion: It's a given that Logan, Sabretooth, and Stryker will all survive the film. Logan will receive his adamantium skeleton from the Weapon X program. Finally, Logan's memories of everything in his life up to, and including, the events of the film will somehow be erased by the end of the film.

Stryker says to Wade Wilson that he'd be the perfect soldier if he didn't have such a mouth. Stryker later turns Wade into a mutated super-soldier who literally has no mouth.

Kayla gets a man to back off from a confrontation with Logan, attributing it to "female powers of persuasion." She earlier fails to convince Logan not to confront the man in the first place. She's using her mutant power, which doesn't work on Sabretooth either—also hinting that her feelings for Logan are genuine since she can't just make him fall for her.

Freeze-Frame Bonus: When John Wraith teleports, going frame-by-frame reveals that, unlike fellow X-Men characters Nightcrawler and Azazel, Wraith teleports in at least two phases—first his skeleton materializes, and then his body, clothes and all. When Weapon XI copies the power, freeze-framing his teleports shows that his entire skeleton, like Wolverine's, is coated in adamantium.

Full-Frontal Assault: Wolverine's first rampage post-surgery, of course, though immediately prior to that he was wearing a pair of briefs.

Gainaxing: We have Emma Frost's slow-motion bouncing near the end before the helicopter.

Gone Horribly Right: Stryker and his team try to create an indestructible warrior. That works pretty well. Then they piss him off. That doesn't.

Healing Factor: Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Weapon XI (copying Wolverine's powers) all heal up just fine from myriad gunshots, stab wounds, and falls from great heights. Wolverine also (barely) survives having red-hot adamantium bonded to his skeleton, and every time he pops his claws he's effectively tearing his hands open, only for them to seal right back up when the claws are retracted. If Stryker is to be believed, Sabretooth's healing factor is not as effective as Logan's, which is why he can't undergo adamantium augmentation. It does allow him to live an unnaturally long life alongside his brother, however.

Heroic Rematch: For all that he was betrayed and lied to in order to do it, Wolverine's consent to the adamantium experiment does achieve his goal—the next time he faces Sabretooth, he fares much better.

Heterosexual Life-Partners: Victor Creed with his half-brother Logan for their childhood and most of their adult lives, up until Logan leaves Team X.

Historical In-Joke: Wolverine and Sabretooth fight Weapon XI atop the cooling tower at Three Mile Island, destroying it in the process.

I Am a Monster: In one of the TV spots, Sabretooth utters this chilling line, which is either a Shout-Out or a ripoff of Seth Brundle's "insect politics" speech from The Fly (1986), which itself is an homage to the Japanese poem, "I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?"

Sabretooth: I'm not your friend... I'm an animal who dreamed he was a man. But the dream is over... and the beast is awake. And I will come for you, because it's my nature.

Played dead straight, by Logan's squeeze Kayla, in regards to him killing off Sabretooth and/or Stryker. Two men, who have been rounding up mutants like cattle, are effectively above the law, and will most likely continue to hunt Logan down as long as he lives. All of which could be solved by a little extra stabbing...

Kayla at least holds herself to the same standards—when she has Stryker at the mercy of her hypnosis power and could force him to commit Psychic-Assisted Suicide, she instead only commands him to throw his gun away and walk until his feet are bleeding. While she lies dying, no less, and after Styker shoots Wolverine twice in the head, erasing his memory of her.

In-Name-Only: This film is fairly notorious for it, with many of the featured mutants having little (or nothing) to do with its comic book counterparts:

Emma Frost. The only attributes that she has in common with her comics counterpart is that she's blonde and can turn her skin into a diamond-like form. X-Men: First Class would ignore her appearance in this story and present its own version of Emma as much closer to her comics counterpart. Then again, she's called "Emma", but the surname is never said, and her sister is "Kayla Silverfox". However, in one of the character TV spots, they clearly use Frost as her surname.

Agent Zero. Not only do they use his New Weapon X callsign instead of his Weapon X one (Maverick), he somehow has Agent X's powers as well. Neither his powers as Maverick (kinetic energy absorption and redirection), nor his powers as Agent Zero (corrosive skin secretions designed to defeat Healing Factor abilities) make an actual appearance. Oh, and he's no longer East German.

Bolt. Or Bradley, for those who missed him because he's long-dead in the comics. He's not only not called by his callsign, he's also no longer the kid Maverick teaches in the use of his powers after retiring—he's now Maverick's comrade-in-arms. Who, instead of lightning-flinging powers, has electric-appliance-powering-and-controlling powers.

Deadpool retains his sarcastic sense of humor, Motor Mouth & katanas... and even those fall by the wayside by the time of the main events of the movie. While he does undergo a procedure to give him a copy of Wolverine's Healing Factor that leaves his body horrifically scarred just like in the comics, he's also saddled with Cyclops' optic blasts, Wraith's teleportation (he uses a device in the comics) and a pair of Blades Below the Shoulders, and just to add insult to injury, his mouth is sewn shut.

In the comics, Blob's fat body was a part of his mutation, with the super strength more of a Required Secondary Power. In fact it's the fat that made him virtually resistant to any weapons.

John Wraith in the comics typically relied on More Dakka and if necessary rocket launchers in a fight, not Teleport Spam and fists. Instead his rather long-ranged teleportation was used to make quick and clean getaways.

Even regular humans weren't spared from becoming In-Name-Only characters. About the only thing in common between the Hudsons in the comics and the Hudsons in this film is that both couples find Wolverine stumbling about after he'd gotten his adamantium skeleton and escaped from the program. In the comics, James and Heather Hudson find Wolverine in the middle of a blizzard by the cabin at which they are honeymooning, and at this point they'd just recently started Department H, the government organization that would create Alpha Flight. In the movie, Travis and Heather Hudson are an elderly couple who find Wolverine stumbling onto their farm (and not in a blizzard), and they have no known government connections. And unlike their comic counterparts, Travis and Heather get killed off.

The only thing in the world Victor cares about is his baby brother. When said brother walks out on him, he doesn't take it well.

This is also how Stryker gets Jimmy involved in the Weapon X program.

When Logan gets bashed through a wall by Gambit, he sees Victor. When Gambit appears right behind him, intent on continuing their fight, Logan doesn't even spare him so much as a glance before elbowing him in the face and fighting Victor.

Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: For all its faults, the film's opening montage of the many wars the US has been in did show Victor's decline from a soldier doing his job to a ruthless killer quite nicely without being really obvious about it.

Laser-Guided Amnesia: The film features quite possibly one of the most painful instances of this trope. An antagonist loads a gun with adamantium bullets, knowing he can't kill Wolverine with them, but intends to give him Laser-Guided Amnesia by shooting him in the head. He succeeds, wiping Wolverine's memory with no other side-effects. Wolverine's "memories don't grow back", but his ability to speak, read, walk, recognize police cars, hide from police cars, etc, do.

William Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head with adamantium bullets (which is kinda justified, as a bullet, which is really fast, could have more impact than a blade). Doesn't kill him, but it does give him amnesia—presumably the shock of the impact gave him severe brain damage and his Healing Factor couldn't piece all his memories back together. Though why this doesn't result in a pair of .44 caliber holes in Logan's adamantium skull is unclear, since his healing factor can't grow back the implanted metal.

A variation with territory and country listed occurs in the case of "Northwest Territories, Canada." The American writers clearly didn't do their research because a portion of this region didn't enter the Canadian Confederation until 1870 (and the other sections were later divided up into separate provinces and territories over the next few decades), so in 1845, it should've been referred to as "North-Western Territory, British North America." James Howlett and Victor Creed were therefore born as British citizens (although presumably it would've been easy for them to obtain Canadian citizenship after the Dominion of Canada was founded in 1867).

Love Makes You Crazy: Victor did not take his brother James leaving him for a life of peace well... not in the least.

Made of Explodium: Wolverine takes down a helicopter, the tail end of which explodes upon hitting the ground. Not so bad. But then Wolverine exchanges dialog with a crash survivor and walks away, lights a trail of gasoline coming from the same helicopter, and makes it explode again in the background.

Mega Manning: Weapon XI, formerly Wade Wilson, is somehow infused with powers from several mutants, including Logan (allowing him to also undergo the adamantium bonding process), Scott Summers, and John Wraith.

In the comics, Deadpool's nickname is "The Merc with the Mouth". Here, he's the Merc with No Mouth.

Stryker's ultimate mutant weapon being called "Weapon XI", in reference to the revelation in the comics that "Weapon X" actually meant "Weapon Ten". Which means that if Weapon XI is Wade Wilson, and Weapon X is Wolverine, there were nine previous attempts.

Stryker can be seen wearing a silver cross necklace in the scene where he goes to meet Logan in the hospital, likely as a nod to the fact that he was a priest (not a military officer) in the comics.

Minor example: TV commercials would feature some of the other mutants in the movie, with one of them noting Emma Frost. Her role in the movie is to turn into diamond at one point, making her more of a cameo than the semi-major character the commercial played her up to be.

This has happened with other characters like Deadpool as well. Some comments have been made about how ridiculous it is that a whole 30 seconds said more about the characters than their screen time throughout the entire film.

Offhand Backhand: Wolverine elbows Gambit in the face as he's coming up behind him to deliver an angry speech.

Offing the Offspring: Thomas Logan nearly shoots his son James Howlett when the kid is charging at him with newly sprouted bone claws, but Elizabeth Howlett manages to grab the hunting rifle before Thomas can do so.

Off with His Head!: The title character talks about wanting to decapitate his big brother, but only end up beheading Weapon XI, in this version an experimented-up Wade Wilson.

Wolverine has one during his climatic fight against Deadpool when it's revealed that Deadpool has teleporting powers.

Zero sports an epic one when he tries to shoot a bullet into Logan's head to (temporarily) take him out, which would have worked if he had normal human bones. Instead, it just bounces off his now indestructible skull and Logan just growls.

Old Money: Judging by the refined manners of John Howlett and the grandeur of the mansion, James Howlett was born into wealth. However, he learns when he was around 13 years old that his mother Elizabeth had an affair with Thomas Logan, his family's groundskeeper, and is their illegitimate child. After the death of both his stepfather and biological father, James runs away from home, and he has been scratching a living ever since.

People Jars: Colonel Stryker collects mutants in glass tanks, where they stay naked in freezing-based suspended animation. Stryker's own son is one of these.

Playing with Syringes: Weapon XI is exactly that—the eleventh of a series of Living Weapon experiments by Stryker, with Wolverine as Weapon X, intended to create the perfect mutant killer by way of Mega Manning mutant powers into one being.

Pragmatic Adaptation: In the comics, Fred Dukes, a.k.a. the Blob, is a mutant whose specific abilities seem to revolve around being morbidly obese. In the film however, Dukes is physically fit until he develops an eating disorder, but his super strength is what allows him to carry his own weight.

Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: The film has Logan go mano-a-mano against Fred Dukes a.k.a. The Blob—without using his claws—to get information from him. Logan's glove-clad punches prove rather ineffective.

Race Lift: Agent Zero is a white guy of East German descent in the X-Men comics, but is played by Korean actor Daniel Henney.

Wolverine: That story you told me about the man who gets flowers for the moon. I had it backwards. I thought you were the Moon and I was your Wolverine, but you're the Trickster, aren't you? I'm just the fool who got played. Worst part of it is I should have known and I ignored my instincts. I ignored what I really am. That won't ever happen again...

The film makes Sabretooth Wolverine's half-brother (as opposed to simply being another Weapon X experiment). Though it seemed to be Fanon before the movie was filmed, due to Dog (Wolverine's half-brother in the comic) having a resemblance to Sabretooth, this was later contraindicated. This also makes him a Composite Character.

Silverfox is the sister of, well, a character with diamond skin named "Emma", but whom Continuity Snarl means can't really be Emma Frost, although that was clearly the intention.

Retcon: Origins introduced a few to what was established in the first three films.

Riding into the Sunset: Included near the end—before a subversion. Logan/Wolverine is carrying Kayla off into the sunset—then a pistol rises into the shot and a gunshot rings out as Stryker arrives with his adamantium bullets...

Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Pretty much the whole point of the movie. Victor kills Kayla, so Logan makes a deal with Styker to get revenge on him, but then Stryker betrays him, so Logan is gunning for both of them, and then it turns out they're working together anyway...

Rule of Cool: The movie is generally considered at its best when it remembers that it's about Hugh Jackman running around stabbing people in the face.

The Runaway: In the beginning of the film, young James Howlett and Victor Creed ran away from home together after James stabs and kills Thomas Logan for murdering his father, then finds out that Thomas was his real father.

It look like Wolverine is about slam his claws right in Sabretooth's throat. Granted, he just knock him unconscious but you already know that he wouldn't kill Sabretooth anyway since he appeared in X-Men, that takes many years after this movie.

Likewise, Wolverine himself, Stryker, and Cyclops are all guaranteed to survive.

Shell-Shocked Veteran: Exaggerated in a bedroom exchange between a traumatized Logan (whose healing powers make him well over a hundred years old) and his lover Kayla Silverfox.

Kayla: Was it the war? Logan: Yes. Kayla: Which one? Logan: All of them.

Shirtless Scene: The film took this to an extreme, which was much to the delight of Hugh Jackman fangirls. During a dramatic escape scene, not only does he erupt from a tank of water completely shirtless (and indeed naked) (muscles + dripping water...) but he then proceeds to escape, running and fighting his way out of the building. Viewers get a lovable full-body shot (in which censorship is barely provided by his leg from a mostly-side-shot) when he jumps off a waterfall.

Shooting Superman: The military scientists who made Wolverine immune to bullets decide to stop him by sending an assassin, armed with bullets, to kill the man who is immune to bullets. As they watch their plan fail, they comment on the fact that the assassin never stood a chance because he wasn't using the special adamantium bullets they had right there next to them!

Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Wolverine destroys a helicopter by using his claws, a motorcycle, and a military Humvee as an impromptu catapult, allowing him to slice the rotors off of the helicopter mid-flight.

Soft Water: Averted. Before jumping into the ocean to reach the island, Logan tells Gambit to his enjoyment that it will hurt very badly falling out of his plane. He actually skips across the water once or twice before falling in.

The Stinger: The film has, depending on your screening, either a now-amnesiac Logan in a bar, "drinking to remember" or the living disembodied head of Deadpool, having gained his mouth back and his Medium Awareness as well. DVD releases have both. There's also General Stryker getting arrested, but everyone got that one.

Super Team: Colonel William Stryker assembles Team X which features James Howlett, Victor Creed, John Wraith, Agent Zero, Christopher Bradley, Wade Wilson and Fred Dukes. Some of them don't get along very well.

Sword Sparks: Logan's claws have always done it some of the time, but in this movie, it's taken to unprecedented heights. When he's examining his new claws in a bathroom mirror, simply tapping them against each other is enough to strike sparks.

Tears of Remorse: The film has Kayla pulling this when Wolverine muses about the folktale and that he is just a fool who got played due to the fact that she is blackmailed into working for Stryker.

Weapon XI effectively fights Victor and Wolverine at the same time by porting back and forth atop the ledge they're all standing on.

John Wraith. Weapon XI did borrow it from him, after all. Which doesn't help much when Victor figures out that he teleports in a predictable pattern, and gets him to teleport into roughly the same area as Victor's claws, with predictable results.

They Were Holding You Back: This is apparently why Victor kills Kayla. Only it turns out, it was Stryker's plan, not Victor's, and Kayla is not actually dead.

Thunderbolt Iron: Adamantium is a rare mineral ore only found in meteorites. Stryker and his team decimated an African village just to obtain more.

Title Confusion: This film has the unnecessarily lengthy title X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and is referred to simply as Wolverine by most sane people. X-Men Origins is a bit of an Artifact Title; it was originally intended to be the first of a series of prequels focusing on the backgrounds of various characters (X-Men Origins: Magneto was in the works but got lost in Development Hell). Had this happened, the title, while still long, would have at least made sense because "X-Men Origins" would be the series name and "Wolverine" would be the movie name.

Token Good Teammate: Subverted. Wolverine was the most vocal and adamant about his disapproval of Team X's actions, but it turns out after his departure most of the rest left not long after, with only Zero and Victor staying behind. Logan simply set the example, as they realised what they had become.

The military needs to stop Wolverine, who they've made immune to almost all weapons. To stop him they have at their disposal: An incredibly skilled marksman, and adamantium bullets capable of penetrating the adamantium shell around his skull and incapacitating him. Somehow the idea that they should combine these two things doesn't seem to occur to them.

Said marksman also thinks it's a good idea to take a jab at Wolverine when he has decided to let him live. After seeing the guy take down a helicopter.

John Wraith, whose only power is teleportation and who thinks the best way to take down a big angry guy with claws and a huge healing factor is to punch him out.

Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: The film has this at the very beginning when a black ops group of mutants cram into an elevator. And then the bad guys cut the power. Deadpan Snarker Wade Wilson makes a comment about it, of course.

The look on Wolverine's face when Blob tells him that Stryker was performing experiments on mutants and when he realizes what led him to willingly get his brand spankin' new adamantium skeleton... priceless.

Emma Silverfox becomes Stryker's hostage -> Kayla is forced to work for Stryker -> Kayla fakes her death as a part of their plan -> Wolverine accepts Stryker's offer to transform his bones into adamantium to avenge Kayla.

Vapor Trail: Wolvie ignites a spark with his claws. The fire travels up the trail of fuel leaking from Agent Zero's downed helicopter. Kerflooey.

The film details the relationship between James Howlett (Wolverine) and Victor Creed (Sabretooth), who are half-brothers. They were Bash Brothers to the very end until Victor's sociopathy goes off the deep end and causes James to lose his connection with Victor.

Victor also kills his old teammates.

What Are You: A shocked and disgusted Elizabeth Howlett directs this question to her son James, who has just sprouted bone claws.

Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: Stryker finally finds a way to shut Wade up by first sewing, and in the finished version, plastering his mouth shut. The Stinger shows the decapitation/fall of the head somehow opened it again.

Wolverine grows three retractable claws of bone in each hand in childhood, and has them upgraded to unbreakable, razor-sharp adamantium along with the rest of his skeleton later in the film.

Sabretooth has Wolverine Claws, what with him being Wolverine's brother. They grow out of his fingernails and are shorter than Wolverine's, but clearly operate on the same principle.

Wolverine Publicity: He's so popular that he gets his own movie. Also features fan-favorites Wade Wilson and Gambit.

You Can't Go Home Again: Invoked by a young Victor Creed after James Howlett kills his family's groundskeeper. The boys are being pursued by lawmen and search dogs.

Jimmy: I want to go home. Victor: We can't.

You Said You Would Let Them Go: Kayla Silverfox pleads with Stryker to honor their bargain and release her sister. When Stryker equivocates and says he needs more time, she quickly realizes that she and Victor was just as much Unwitting Pawns as Logan.

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